- The ASX200 is trading 0.2% lower at 7442 points after lunchtime.
- SiteMinder soars 34% on ASX debut following IPO raising $627m.
- Australian Pharmaceutical Industries accepts Wesfarmers takeover.
The Australian market has started the week 0.2% lower at 7442 points as tech and communications services stocks weigh down the key index despite a surge in Energy stocks. Travel stocks are taking flight today after Sydney Airport announced it has accepted a $32bn takeover bid.
The tech sector?s more than 1.5% tumble today so far is driven by Xero tanking 3.68%, Appen falling 2.98% and EML Payments trading 2.39% lower.
Bitcoin is trading 5.22% higher over the last 24-hours at US$65,206.77 at 1:30pm AEDT as Elon Musk is allowing a Twitter poll decide whether he should sell some of his Tesla stock and what to do with the money, with many voters saying he should put the funds into Bitcoin.
Australian tech unicorn SiteMinder made a successful debut on the ASX this morning. Following an IPO at $5.06/share raising $627m giving the company a market value of $1.3bn, shares in the global leading hotel commerce platform surged 33.99% to $6.78/share by midday. SiteMinder Chief Executive Sankar Narayan told the AFR that the timing of the IPO was driven by the expected travel recovery and progression on the company?s software product roadmap and diversification.
Making headlines, Wesfarmers has become the new owner of Priceline parent company Australian Pharmaceutical Industries after the company accepted Wesfarmers? $1.55 cash / share takeover offer to acquire 100% of API?s shares that it doesn?t already own via a scheme of arrangement.
And a new app called Placie has launched to make it easier for rideshare users to determine the cheapest app out of providers like Didi, Ola and Uber and quickest time for calling a ride by aggregating all data from each provider into the one convenient app.